Commentary: Why is there a tree sit in Willits to protest the CalTrans bypass?

Commentary: Why is there a tree sit in Willits to protest the CalTrans bypass?

For decades the Federal Highway Administration and the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) have been pursuing a freeway bypass on Highway 101 around the town of Willits. For decades townsfolk have been suggesting simpler, less costly, and less destructive alternatives.

With word that a large-scale cutting of trees could begin immediately, a local citizen's group, Save Our Little Lake Valley (SOLLV), came together on Monday, January 28, at the proposed "Southern Interchange," just 2 ? miles south of Willits, to protest the CalTrans bypass and to protect the life of the valley. This area features a large number of blue and black oak trees, mixed with ponderosa pines and madrones, many of which reside on a hillside CalTrans plans to excavate to use as fill material to build its 20-foot-high freeway.

When SOLLV citizens arrived they were surprised to see a young woman nestled high up in one of the large ponderosa pine trees slated for removal. She is a 24 year-old local woman calling herself, the warbler, who has been living and working in the Willits valley for the past four years. Her commitment to protect the land evolved naturally from her years growing up surrounded by the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

The Warbler has pledged to maintain her tree-sit as long as it remains an effective way of staving off CalTrans' construction plans. Around 60 supporters rallied at the base of the tree to support her protest and to raise public awareness. The underlying answer to the question, "why do we protest?" might best be summarized by author Sam Keen who said, "The logic that determines our survival or destruction is simple:

The new human vocation is to heal the earth.

We can only heal what we love.

We can only love what we know.

We can only know what we touch."

Warbler inspires us all to get in touch. "CalTrans has not considered the many other viable and sensible solutions to Willlits' traffic problems developed by the people," says Warbler. "This bypass will not improve local traffic and will create no permanent jobs, but it will permanently scar the Little Lake Valley. The Army Corp of Engineers is mandated to choose the least harmful alternative and the CalTrans bypass isn't it."

Warbler's willingness to "occupy" a large tree in order to protect it and the surrounding countryside is reminiscent of Julia "Butterfly" Hill who was just 23 years-old on December 10, 1997 when she ascended 180 feet up the redwood tree she called Luna, where she lived for 738 days, before an accommodation was reached to preserve Luna and all trees within a 200 foot buffer zone.

Support for Warbler, and her efforts to find a better solution than the CalTrans bypass, is increasing every day. Local businessman Bill Barksdale says, "I am in favor of some kind of traffic burden easing on our Main Street. I know I absolutely do not want to endure years of pile-driving noise and pollution to accommodate an unsightly high-rise highway not suitable for our valley."

Longtime Willits residents Marc Komer and Robin Goldner wrote to Gov. Jerry Brown. The CalTrans bypass "is a project that needs to be stopped now. It is an unnecessary fiscal waste and an environmental disaster. Willits has traffic bottlenecks in summer months and during peak usage. But according to CalTran's own study, three-quarters of the traffic in Willits is local. A better solution can be built for a fraction of the project's estimated cost."

Michael Foley grows vegetables at Green Uprising Farm in the Little Lake Valley. "When our elected officials choose to leave it to the bureaucracies and leave us out," says Foley, "it becomes not just a right but an obligation of citizens to protest. That's what Thomas Jefferson and John Adams and the rest of the Founding Fathers said."

Warbler has made her stand. "I'm here and I'm going to stay here," she says. The question is, who will stand with her?

When asked which environmentalist she most admired she said, "I've been influenced by Native American activist and poet John Trudell, but really, I've been most inspired by the entire Willits community that continues to support me."

To learn more, offer support, or go on one of the tours of the CalTrans Bootprint contact: